Preaching “God Loves You?” Don’t Miss The Essential Ingredient
What signs or symptoms or evidence can we offer that God’s love isn’t a made-up thing “to placate the masses”—or just make us all feel better?
What to Do If You Think Your Fellow Preachers Aren’t Doing Their Jobs
It came up again this week in light of the horrendous shootings in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH. Some preachers are concerned their fellow preachers aren’t doing their jobs.
Preaching on Violent Texts with Integrity: Four Questions
There’s no getting around it: there are some tough passages in Scripture. Dr. Thompson showed us we can stay true to the text without excusing it; making it metaphorical, allegorical, or symbolic; or providing a justification that the times were “different back then.”
This one change can help you preach an original sermon—even on a text you’ve preached a hundred times.
We’re so excited about Sermon Camp, we want to share one of the lessons at the core of our process. Preachers find the shift discussed in this lesson (video + chapter) transforms their sermon prep and their sermons—and addresses a crucial mistake most didn’t realize they were making.
Three Preaching Hacks I Learned from Writing My New Book
A few weeks ago I turned in the manuscript for my next book: The Gospel People Don’t Want to Hear: Preaching Challenging Messages (Working Preacher Books, anticipated Spring 2020). While I’m pleased with this first draft, it was much harder to write than I anticipated. What I learned from writing it are at least three hacks that apply to preaching.
Want to Preach Better? Write Better. (A Guest Post With a Giveaway & a Request)
As a writing instructor, I’ve discovered that preachers struggle with the things all writers struggle with. Purpose and audience, clarity and specificity, development of ideas, organization and structure. Planning their writing process. Generating ideas. Re-visioning their drafts. Polishing their sentences. And out of my experience teaching writers, I’ve created a free guide for preachers to help you generate more ideas and write more effectively.
Two Essential Ingredients to Effective Preaching
Information will help us preach knowledgeably. But to preach authentically—to preach transformationally—we need more than information.
Offer What You Know & Make Your Listeners Work: Lessons from Yo-Yo Ma & Bach
How can we, as preachers, approach our craft with the wisdom of Yo-Yo Ma and the genius of Bach in order to better engage our listeners?
The Surprising Key to Writing Your Sermon Faster
There are times when muscling a sermon from the blank page through gritted teeth is actually counter-productive. When more is actually less. And when effort is not proportional to results. When we find ourselves dreading the blinking cursor at the top of our empty document, we may want to try a different tool than pure effort.
Becoming a Better Preacher: A Case Study with Pastor Andrea Myers
I'm building a more robust toolkit, or artist’s palette, so that I can deliberately choose the right tool or style to communicate a given message. While I'm still writing on Saturdays (for now!), I'm never starting from a blank page, which has helped me to fall in love with preaching again.
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Live Lectio for Sermon Prep (Free!)
Get an early start on your sermon prep by joining us live on Facebook (Mondays at noon Central) as we prayerfully discuss the coming week's gospel passage (RCL & NL).
I participated in the Lectio study today with a complicated and double-speak Gospel (John 17:6-19) and WOW! I received so much great insight and am headed in a direction I feel really good about. Thank you to all my colleagues! If you are wondering if this is worth it, wonder no more. It is.
—Donna G.
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Craft an Effective Sermon by Friday
This downloadable eCourse teaches you effective techniques you can apply immediately to craft soul-filled sermons that connect with your audience.
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The Gospel People Don't Want to Hear: Preaching Challenging Messages was written to aid preacher’s in understanding what’s at stake for their listeners so they can craft sermons their audience can receive, even if they challenge cherished beliefs.
I just have to say WOW. I'm so grateful that I made the investment and joined The Collective. These Thursday [workshops] are a game-changer for me.
—Andrea M.